**Note from CAF: The following was written in dialogue between two members of my network in Montana. The author is positive, very intelligent, thorough, highly educated, grounded. This is a highly responsible person with a deep understanding of the local ecology and economy. That is to say that this is an observation we should all take very seriously.
I asked for permission to post it because I want each one of us who contributes to the education of a young person to think very carefully about the investment of that person’s time and money in an education. Beware institutions that are not concerned about helping a young person achieve significant results for the experience, let alone protect them from risk.
Do your due diligence with care. For those of you who continue to poo-poo the importance of being trained in self defense and owning and being trained to use and carry weapons, I want you to take a long careful coherent look at the current risks around you and make sure that it is the wise decision for you.**
By a Solari Reader
I don’t have one article. I’ve been following it in the paper, primarily the Missoulian. If you search their archives, you’ll find quite a few articles. This saga has been ongoing for years now.
Briefly: for several years now the campus and the city have seen a high frequency of rapes — mugger-style rapes, (frat) party-rapes and date-rapes. The party rape and date rape scene usually (but not always) involves a football star(s) or frat bro(s) surreptitiously drugging the victim by dropping a pharmaceutical downer into her drink. But, it has also involved straight-up date rape. Victims have been treated dismissively by the police and the campus until the feds stepped in. (Remember that the Griz Boosters are all in the local power network.) The feds played heavy-handed as always and forced an agreement on the University and the Missoula Police Department, but the county is suing them rather than accepting the agreement. So, the feds in return are seeking to turn the feminist community against the county attorney by claiming proof of gender bias, etc. and on and on and on and on.
In addition, several Griz football players and ex-players have been arrested and charged or convicted for violent crime including armed robberies, home invasions (guns), beating, drugs (ecstasy, etc.), all playing into the wanna-be-gangsta trash.
It is a cultivated environment — and as such, is merely a reflection of the larger society. In my adult life I have spent lots of time on the road and on the streets and I have always been observant. In those years I have seen the streets turn from a rough scene to a highly dangerous scene. The street demographics have shifted hugely since the 80s, from the curious, seeker-types towards mentally ill (hundreds of thousands “de-institutionalized” in the 80s and left to the streets) and towards war veterans and towards some unrestrained, abused and highly violent juveniles. (The knockout game is big here.)
But, ultimately, neither the feds nor the county are going to do much to stop the situation because as competing power juntas, their respective priorities are about managing and expanding their power base. If expanding and maintaining the power base agrees with the stated goal of reducing sexual violence, then great; everyone gets a party hat. But, the expansion and maintenance are highest priority. And, the situation has its roots buried deep in a culture of predation and exploitation — and underlying that predation is the de-humanization and objectification of “the other” — poor/rich people, blacks/whites, this/that. And, we know that that logic ALWAYS benefits the power juntas. Back to square one.
These are times to exercise situational awareness.
